Nathan Mendelsohn's American BJJ Player Blog: Training with the Best to be the Best!! Rodolfo Vieira and the GFTEAM Camp

As my first week here at the GFTeam Training Camp begins drawing to a close I look back on the intensive training I've been put through and I can't believe how much improvement I have made in such a short time span.

Before coming out here, my project in training was to put pressure on my opponents guard in the way that Rodolfo Vieira does. I watched video after video of him destroying the best guards in the game and when I would get on the mat I did my best to emulate his style. I knew that he and some of the other top GFTEAM athletes were coming out here to do this training camp in Colorado but I wasn't sure if it was going to be within my means to make it out here. Luckily, at the last minute with the help of my parents, my instructor Claudio Franca and my sponsors here at OTM I was able to make the trip happen and working this whole week with the man Rodolfo Vieira himself has totally solidified my guard passing game and really dialed in all the things I had been trying to work on this whole year.

As I have mentioned here in my blog before, I try to always offer to put up the athletes from GFTEAM at my house when they travel to California and thus I have a closer relationship with some of them than many of the other gringos who come to train with the team. Rodolfo has stayed at my house in Santa Cruz and I have stayed at his in Campo Grande and we've known each other for close to five years now. Thus he is very open with me during training and I have been fortunate enough to pick up on various priceless details during countless sparring matches with him over the course this week. The pressure that he puts on his opponent when passing the guard is not a result of pure strength but rather the combination of a multitude of minute details that he is constantly applying. Another of the GFTEAM athletes who passes very similar to Rodolfo and who has also been helping me a ton while I've been out here is professer Luiz Dentinho Eduardo. If you ever get the chance to train with either of these two athletes do not miss it!

Another reason I love training with Rodolfo is that he is in complete control and I know that he can take whatever I can throw at him so I don't feel bad to unleash my inner beast and go all out when training with him. I'm not afraid he's going to get angry at me for going too hard and when he puts the smash on my guard I know that if I can get used to that pressure squishing my face into the mat that I'll be ready for anything my opponents in the brown belt lightweight division can throw at me.

And not only have I been getting hard training with the GFTEAM athletes but also with the multitude of extremely tough fighters that come from Amal Easton's team here in Boulder. The team has been extremely welcoming and our high level training has been strengthened by strong local athletes such as James Strater-Smith, Brian Carlsen, Matt Jubera, Mike Tousignant, and the man Amal Easton himself. These tough training sessions with Rodolfo and the rest of the crew here in Boulder combined with the intensive high altitude physical preparation we have been subjected to over this week has left me feeling quite prepared for the war in long beach that is looming on the horizon.